Social Behavior Research Articles

Occupational exposure to organic solvents during pregnancy and child behavior from early childhood to adolescence

BackgroundOrganic solvents are used in formulating an extensive range of products for professional use. Animal and human studies suggest that in utero solvent exposure may affect neurodevelopment. Our objective was to assess the association between occupational exposure to solvents during pregnancy and child behavior aged 2–12 years.MethodsThe French mother-child cohort PELAGIE (2002–2006) included 3,421 women recruited in early pregnancy. Occupational exposure to solvents was self-reported. For 459 children, parents used a questionnaire derived from the Child Behavior Checklist and the Preschool Social Behavior Questionnaire to assess their child’s behavior, at age 2, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at ages 6 and 12. A cross-lagged structural equation modeling approach was used to assess direct and indirect associations between exposure and child behavior.ResultsAt age 2, an increased externalizing behavior score was suggested with prenatal exposure to solvents (mean change in standardized score (95%CI): 0.28 (-0.01, 0.57) for occasional exposure and 0.23 (-0.05, 0.51) for regular exposure). At ages 6 and 12, distinct sex-specific patterns were observed: among boys, no association with externalizing behavior was observed, while among girls, an association was seen for both occasional and regular exposure (total effect at age 12: 0.45 (0.06,0.83) and 0.40 (0.03, 0.76), respectively). For both sexes, occasional exposure may be associated with internalizing behavior at ages 6 and 12 (total effect at age 6: 0.37 (0.06, 0.68) and at age 12: 0.27 (-0.08, 0.62)).ConclusionsOccupational exposure to solvents during pregnancy may impact child behavior through either direct or cumulative effects during childhood; these associations may persist until early adolescence, especially among girls.

Animal-assisted services for adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders: A scoping review.

There is increasing interest in the incorporation of animal-assisted services (AAS) in therapy for adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. AAS have the potential to enhance speech and language therapy engagement and outcomes. However, a greater understanding of the nature and potential benefits of these interventions is needed. To describe the existing evidence for the incorporation of AAS in therapy with adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders and to identify areas for future research. A scoping review was conducted and reported in alignment with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses checklist extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Seven databases (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, Scopus, Web of Science) and grey literature (Google) were searched. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full texts against eligibility criteria using Covidence software. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist guided extraction of intervention data. A total of 17 studies with adults with aphasia, apraxia of speech and cognitive-communication disorders were included. While terminology varied, most interventions met the definition of animal-assisted therapy or animal-assisted activity and used therapy dogs. Across studies, a range of outcomes were targeted, and positive benefits were reported for participant mood, emotions, motivation and satisfaction. There were mixed, but mostly positive, benefits on social behaviour, communication and participation. AAS has been incorporated in therapy for adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders, predominately with people with dementia. Across studies, communication impairments and AAS interventions were insufficiently or inconsistently described. Improved reporting would assist understanding of the potential benefits of AAS as an adjunct therapy. A quality appraisal of existing studies, and meta-analysis of findings, is needed to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of AAS as a complementary therapy for people with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. What is already known on this subject There is increasing interest and research in AAS as an adjunct to traditional speech and language therapy. Several clinical populations have been shown to benefit from the incorporation of AAS as a complementary therapy approach, including adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. To date there has not been a comprehensive review of literature in the area. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This review aimed to describe what is known about AAS as an adjunct intervention for adults with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. A total of 17 studies were identified, the majority conducted with people living with dementia. Overall, consistent positive benefits of AAS were reported on participant mood, positive emotions, motivation, and satisfaction. There were mixed, but mostly positive, benefits of AAS on social behaviour, including both verbal and non-verbal communication outcomes, and participation. What are the practical and clinical implications of this work? These results suggest a potential therapeutic benefit for the inclusion of AAS into traditional modalities used by speech-language therapists with people with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. However, clinicians should view these findings with caution. Studies were often insufficiently or inconsistently reported, and a quality appraisal and meta-analysis of existing studies would be needed to draw clear conclusions on the effectiveness of AAS as a complementary approach for people with acquired neurogenic communication disorders.

Oxytocin and Vasopressin in Emotional Memory and “Face Reading”: a Neurobiological Approach and Clinical Aspects

The ability to adequately perceive and recognize emotions is a key and universal tool in interpersonal communication, which allows people to understand feelings, intentions, and emotional reactions of themselves and others. Throughout their life, people have to make inferences about mental state of others by interpreting subtle social signals, such as facial expressions, to understand or predict others’ behavior, which is crucial in constructive social interactions. Therefore, emotional memory associated with the ability to identify emotions based on one’s life experience is the cornerstone of social cognition and interpersonal relationships. Oxytocin and vasopressin are neurohypophysial peptides that have attracted scientific attention due to their role in the emotional and social aspects of behavior. Variable and contrasting effects of oxytocin and vasopressin may be related to the sites of the brain where they exert their activity. Aim. This review aimed to evaluate neural mechanisms underlying oxytocin-mediated and vasopressin-mediated modulation of emotional memory; to assess how cerebral oxytocin-signal and vasopressin-signal transduction mediates emotional and social behavior; to discuss the role of the two neuropeptides in non-verbal interpersonal communication; and to present their cerebral effects in relation to an ability for “face reading” in patients with mental disorders.

The role of loss aversion in social conformity: psychological and neural representations.

The impact of others' choices on decision-making is influenced by individual preferences. However, the specific roles of individual preferences in social decision-making remain unclear. In this study, we examine the contributions of risk and loss preferences as well as social influence in decision-making under uncertainty using a gambling task. Our findings indicate that while both individual preferences and social influence affect decision-making in social contexts, loss aversion plays a dominant role, especially in individuals with high loss aversion. This phenomenon is accompanied by increased functional connectivity between the anterior insular cortex and the temporoparietal junction. These results highlight the critical involvement of loss aversion and the anterior insular cortex-temporoparietal junction neural pathway in social decision-making under uncertainty. Our findings provide a computational account of how individual preferences and social information collectively shape our social decision-making behaviors.

ENHANCED BONOBO OPTIMIZER FOR OPTIMIZING DYNAMIC PHOTOVOLTAIC MODELS

Bonobo optimizer (BO) is a novel metaheuristic algorithm motivated bythe social behaviour of the bonobos. This paper presents a quantum behaved bonobo optimization algorithm (QBOA) employing an innovative metaheuristic based on the reproductive strategies and social behavior of bonobos.Whereby, the quantum mechanics are embedded into the bonobo optimizerto direct the search agents through the search space. Accordingly, under thisquantum-behaved movement, the proposed QBOA’s exploitation capability ispromoted. The performance of the proposed QBOA is exhibited on CEC2005and CEC2019 benchmarks. Moreover, the QBOA algorithm was adapted tooptimize the dynamic photovoltaic models parameters. QBOA exhibits theefficiency and adequacy to solve various optimization problems based on experimental and comparison findings, as well as its ability to implement competitiveand promising results optimizing dynamic photovoltaic models

Community Social Behavior Toward Posyandu

Posyandu is a community-based health initiative created to tackle health improvement policies and make access to basic healthcare services, especially maternal and infant care, easier for the community. The success rate of reducing infant and maternal mortality depends on the extent to which the community actively participates in Posyandu activities, is cooperative and informative to officers, contributes ideas, and participates in the implementation of service innovations. This research aims to see how far Posyandu is implemented as it should be in the community, and to understand underlying factors of social behavior in society. This is a qualitative study that uses descriptive methodologies to explain the social behavior of the community toward posyandu. The results show that posyandu management is heavily reliant on the behavior of those involved in its services, from healthcare workers as service providers to community leaders and village officials as motivators in strengthening the posyandu because posyandu is a type of health effort made to empower the community and facilitate access to basic healthcare services to its members. On the other hand, the behavior of those who do not actively support and engage in posyandu initiatives might affect others and create problems within the community. Community empowerment is established by motivating elements to enhance family and community health, identifying needs and impediments to health services, and understanding available resources. Keywords: social behavior, posyandu, community, health behavior

Frustrative Nonreward: Behavior, Circuits, Neurochemistry, and Disorders.

The surprising omission or reduction of vital resources (food, fluid, social partners) can induce an aversive emotion known as frustrative nonreward (FNR), which can influence subsequent behavior and physiology. FNR is an integral mediator of irritability/aggression, motivation (substance use disorders, depression), anxiety/fear/threat, learning/conditioning, and social behavior. Despite substantial progress in the study of FNR during the twentieth century, research lagged in the later part of the century and into the early twenty-first century until the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria initiative included FNR and loss as components of the negative valence domain. This led to a renaissance of new research and paradigms relevant to basic and clinical science alike. The COVID-19 pandemic's extensive individual and social restrictions were correlated with increased drug and alcohol use, social conflict, irritability, and suicide, all potential consequences of FNR. This article highlights animal models related to these psychiatric disorders and symptoms and presents recent advances in identifying the brain regions and neurotransmitters implicated.

Item Bank Development and Content Validation of a Youth Sport Specialization Assessment

OBJECTIVE: To refine and evaluate the content validity of a bank of items representing the physical, social, and motivation behaviors associated with youth sport specialization. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis METHODS: The conceptual framework for item generation involved an existing consensus-based definition of youth sport specialization. Purposive sampling recruited English literate youth athletes who participated in at least one organized sport in the past 12 months to participate in individual cognitive interviews. Three rounds of interviews used a ‘read aloud; think aloud’ strategy to evaluate the comprehension, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the items and their response structure. One reviewer conducted thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts following rounds 1-2; after round 3, two independent reviewers evaluated the content validity of all items. The full research team reviewed results and established consensus regarding item acceptance, revision or removal. RESULTS: Twenty-two participants (64% male, 13.8±3.0 years) were interviewed. Participants were classified as low (59%), moderate (23%), and high (18%) specialization. Thirty-one items organized into participation volume, physical, motivation, and social domains were tested. Comprehension of 24 items in the physical (n=6), motivation (n=12), and social (n=6) domains was acceptable. No participation volume items achieved content validity. Acceptable items were considered relevant to youth sport specialization, and the item bank was deemed comprehensive. Participants affirmed the response structure was easy to understand and use. CONCLUSION: Content validity was established for a bank of patient-reported items assessing youth sport specialization. An appropriate next step is to conduct psychometric evaluation and develop a youth sport specialization assessment.

The role of involution on Chinese youth pursuit of postgraduate education abroad: examine through the lens of normative social behaviour

ABSTRACT Involution has gained significant traction in China in recent years, particularly in the realms of education and employment. With the economic slowdown, more individuals opt for postgraduate studies to enhance their skills and remain competitive. The keen competition in China has prompted some to pursue further studies abroad, while others leverage academic qualifications obtained from prestigious overseas universities to engage in job involution upon returning home. This phenomenon has been examined by a qualitative research, employing the Theory of Normative Social Behaviour (TNSB) as a lens for analysis. Through the TNSB, the study explores how involution functions as a social norm, influencing the pursuit of postgraduate education abroad among young individuals as a normative social behaviour. The research involved in-depth interviews with 15 mainland Chinese postgraduate students, focusing on three key norms. Descriptive norms shed light on the influence of peers and family members on students’ decisions regarding further education. Injunctive norms reveal how young individuals’ perceptions of external rewards and intrinsic benefits impact their pursuit of postgraduate studies. Collective norms explore the societal influences that shape their choices. Based on the findings, suggestions have been put forward to utilize involution as a driving force for healthy societal progression.

α-Synuclein aggregation decreases cortico-amygdala connectivity and impairs social behavior in mice

Abnormal accumulation of insoluble α-synuclein (α-Syn) inclusions in neurons, neurites, and glial cells is the defining neuropathology of synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy. Accumulation of α-Syn inclusions in the amygdala has been well-documented in post-mortem studies of PD and DLB brains, as well as preclinical animal models of these conditions. Though α-Syn pathology is closely associated with neurodegeneration, there is a poor correlation between neuronal loss in the amygdala and the clinical features of PD and DLB. Moreover, functional interaction between the cerebral cortex and the amygdala is critical to regulating emotion, motivation, and social behaviors. The cortico-amygdala functional interaction is likely to be disrupted by the development of α-Syn pathology in the brain. Thus, we hypothesize that neuronal α-Syn inclusions disrupt cortical modulation of the amygdala circuits and are sufficient to drive social behavioral deficits. In the present work, we designed a series of longitudinal studies to rigorously measure the time courses of neurodegeneration, functional impairment of cortico-amygdala connectivity, and development of amygdala-dependent social behavioral deficits to test this hypothesis. We injected α-Syn preformed fibrils (PFFs) into the dorsal striatum to induce α-Syn aggregation in the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of C57BL6 mice of both sexes, followed by a detailed analysis of temporal development of α-Syn pathology, synaptic deficits, and neuronal loss in the amygdala, as well as behavioral deficits at 3–12 months post injections. Development of α-Syn inclusions caused losses of cortical axon terminals and cell death in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) at 6- and 12-months post injections, respectively. At a relatively early stage of 3 months post injections, the connection strength of the mPFC-BLA synapse was decreased in PFFs-injection mice compared to controls. Meanwhile, the PFFs-injected mice showed impaired social interaction behavior, which was rescued by chemogenetic stimulation of mPFC-BLA connections. Altogether, we presented a series of evidence to delineate circuit events in the amygdala associated with the accumulation of α-Syn inclusions in the mouse brain, highlighting that functional impairment of the amygdala is sufficient to cause social behavior deficits. The present work further suggests that early circuit modulation could be an effective approach to alleviate symptoms associated with α-Syn pathology, necessitating studies of functional consequences of α-Syn aggregation.

Friend or foe: effects of social experience and genetic line on responses of young gilts in a social challenge paired interaction test

The increased focus on group housing of sows in commercial pig production emphasises the importance of saving appropriate gilts which later become sows that are well-adapted to group housing systems. This study aimed to assess the short-term effects of social mixing experience and genetic line on social and exploration responses of young gilts in standardised 3-min social challenge paired interaction tests. The study included 96 gilts, from 26 litters, of two different genetic lines (Swedish Yorkshire and Dutch Yorkshire). These lines were chosen because the dam lines have been selected in group-housed and individual stall systems, respectively, a background which was hypothesised to have modified their social behaviour over time. The gilts were subjected to different early (opportunity to co-mingle with piglets in the neighbouring farrowing pen vs. no opportunity to co-mingle) and late (mixed with unfamiliar piglets at weaning vs. kept with familiar littermates after weaning) social mixing treatments, to test whether the enhanced social experience was beneficial in a socially challenging situation. Paired interaction tests were conducted at 5 and 20 weeks of age, and social and exploration behaviour of the gilts was recorded and analysed. The results showed that Swedish Yorkshire gilts explored the pen fittings more than Dutch Yorkshire gilts during the 5-week test, whereas Dutch Yorkshire gilts explored the pen fittings more than Swedish Yorkshire gilts during the 20-week test. No differences in play behaviour were found during the 5-week test, but in the 20-week test, gilts with early social mixing experience in their farrowing pen showed more locomotor play behaviour than gilts without this experience. Overall, these results suggest that genetic line and early social mixing experience can influence the social and exploration behaviours of young gilts in paired interaction tests. There was no support for the hypothesis that genetic selection in different housing systems has altered social behaviour, but it may have affected the level of exploration behaviour. There was little support for our prediction that early social experience has beneficial effects in a socially challenging situation.

Long-term diabetic hyperglycaemia modifies social behaviour in rats

Diabetes is a known risk factor for cognitive decline and mood disorders. However, the effects of long-term diabetic hyperglycaemia on the various dimensions of social behaviours, such as play or aggression, remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the social behaviour in a nicotinamide-streptozotocin rat model of long-term diabetic hyperglycaemia, in the absence of glucose-lowering treatments. Five months following induction of hyperglycaemia, we scored affiliative/exploratory or aggressive social interactions between pairs of unacquainted rats in a neutral arena. Our results demonstrate alterations in the behaviour of long-term diabetic rats faced with social novelties. Specifically, diabetic hyperglycaemic rats engaged in hyper-sociable and hyper-aggressive encounters. Interestingly, social interactivity was not associated with the degree of hyperglycaemia in affiliative/exploratory or in aggressive social interactions, in our long-term diabetic rat model. Altogether, our data suggest a lack of social appropriateness in long-term diabetic hyperglycaemic rats which is independent of the degree of hyperglycaemia. These findings support the importance of a tight glycaemic control in the management of diabetes at every stage of the disease and enlighten the importance of impaired glycaemic control as a novel metabolic player impacting the neural networks of social behaviours.

The infant parasympathetic nervous system is socially embedded and dynamic at multiple timescales, within and between people.

Human interpersonal capacities emerge from coordinated neural, biological, and behavioral activity unfolding within and between people. However, developmental research to date has allocated comparatively little focus to the dynamic processes of how social interactions emerge across these levels of analysis. Second-person neuroscience and dynamic systems approach together to offer an integrative framework for addressing these questions. This study quantified respiratory sinus arrhythmia and social behavior (∼360 observations per system) from 44 mothers and typically developing 9-month-old infants during a novel modified "still-face" (text message perturbation) task. Stochastic autoregression models indicate that the infant parasympathetic nervous system is coupled within and between people second by second and is sensitive to social context. Intraindividual, we found positive coupling between infants' parasympathetic nervous system activity and their social behavior in the subsequent second, but only during the moments and periods of active caregiver engagement. Between people, we found a bidirectional coregulatory feedback loop: Mothers' parasympathetic activity positively predicted that of their infant in the subsequent second, a form of synchrony that decreased during the text message perturbation and did not fully recover. Conversely, infant parasympathetic activity negatively predicted that of their mother at the subsequent second, a form of synchrony that was invariant over social context. Findings reveal unidirectional parasympathetic coupling within infants and a complementary allostatic feedback loop between mother and infant parasympathetic systems. They offer novel evidence of a dynamic, socially embedded parasympathetic system at previously undocumented timescales, contributing to both basic science and potential clinical targets to better support adaptive, multisystem social development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on estrous cycle, and behavior and expression of estrogen receptor alpha and oxytocin during estrus and diestrus in mice offspring.

Increasing evidence indicates that prenatal cocaine exposure may result in many developmental and long-lasting neurological and behavioral effects. The behaviors of female animals are strongly associated with the estrous cycle. Estrogen receptors and oxytocin are important neuroendocrine factors that regulate social behavior and are of special relevance to females. However, whether prenatal cocaine exposure induces estrous cycle changes in offspring and whether neurobehavioral changes in estrus and diestrus offspring differ remains unclear. On gestational day 12, mice were administered cocaine once daily for seven consecutive days, then the estrous cycle was examined in adult female offspring, as well as locomotion, anxiety level, and social behaviors, and the expression of estrogen receptor alpha-immunoreactive and oxytocin-immunoreactive neurons were compared between estrus and diestrus offspring. Prenatal cocaine exposure resulted in the shortening of proestrus and estrus in the offspring. During estrus and diestrus, prenatally cocaine-exposed offspring showed increased anxiety levels and changed partial social behaviors; their motility showed no significant differences in estrus, but declined in diestrus. Prenatal cocaine exposure reduced estrogen receptor alpha-immunoreactive expression in the medial preoptic area, ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus, and arcuate nucleus and oxytocin-immunoreactive expression in the paraventricular nucleus in estrus and diestrus offspring. These results suggest that prenatal cocaine exposure induces changes in the offspring's estrous cycle and expression of estrogen receptor alpha and oxytocin in a brain region-specific manner and that prenatal cocaine exposure and the estrous cycle interactively change motility and partial social behavior. Estrogen receptor alpha and oxytocin signaling are likely to play important concerted roles in mediating the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on the offspring.

Keefektifan Pembelajaran Proyek Sains terhadap Kemampuan Pemecahan Masalah dan Sosial Emosional di TK Kenanga Kelompok B

The inability of group B children at Kenanga Kindergarten to solve problems and it is known that their social and emotional abilities are still low is the problem of this research. This research aims to determine the effectiveness of science project-based learning on the problem-solving and socio-emotional abilities of children aged 5-6 years at Kenanga Kindergarten, Karanganyar Village. The research approach is quantitative with a quasi-experimental type. The research sample consisted of 30 people and was divided into two sample classes (experimental samples and control samples). The research results show that the results of the t test for problem solving ability show a value of Sig. (2-tiled) 0.001 < 0.005, which means there is a significant difference in the average value of the pretest and posttest problem solving ability variables. The N-Gain Score test is 78.23%, meaning that science project learning is effective in improving children's problem solving abilities. Meanwhile, the results of the social ability t test show the significance value of the t test Sig. (2-tiled) 0.015 < 0.05, meaning there is a significant difference in the average pre-test and post-test scores for science project learning on children's social-emotional abilities. The n-gain score test results were 76.48%, this means that science project learning is effective in improving children's social emotional abilities.

Sex-dependent effects of ethanol withdrawal from a single- and repeated binge episode exposures on social anxiety-like behavior and neuropeptide gene expression in adolescent rats

Ethanol withdrawal sensitivity is a risk factor for the development of alcohol use disorder. Heavy episodic drinking during adolescence often encompasses repeated periods of withdrawal. Adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure of laboratory rodents produces several neurobiological deficits that differ between sexes, but the sensitivity to withdrawal as a contributor to the observed sex differences is not clear. The current study assessed the impact of acute withdrawal from a single- and repeated binge ethanol episodes during adolescence as well as protracted abstinence from repeated binge episodes on social anxiety-like behavior (indexed via significant decreases of social investigation) as well as oxytocin (OXT) and vasopressin (AVP) system gene expression in the hypothalamus (HYP) and central amygdala (CeA) in male and female Sprague Dawley rats. Females displayed social anxiety-like behavior during withdrawal from a single binge episode, whereas both sexes showed social anxiety-like changes following acute withdrawal from repeated binge episodes. After a period of protracted abstinence, only males still displayed ethanol-associated social alterations. Analysis of gene expression in separate, non-socially tested subjects revealed that withdrawal from repeated binge episodes during adolescence increased AVP gene expression in the HYP of males and decreased it in females. Males also displayed increased AVP and OXTR gene expression during acute withdrawal from repeated binge episodes in the CeA, with these changes persisting into adulthood. Together, these findings suggest that adolescent females are sensitive to withdrawal from both acute and repeated ethanol exposures, whereas males are sensitive to withdrawal from repeated ethanol exposures, with affective and transcriptional changes persisting into adulthood.

IMPLEMENTING THE GOALS OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO STU-DENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING SOCIAL COMPE-TENCY IN THE CONTEXT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The authors analyze social skills as a component of communication skills and work out proce-dure to help students with neuropsychiatric disabilities acquire and develop necessary social and communication skills and abilities by using foreign languages as a means of communication and interaction when learning foreign languages. The authors define the purpose of teaching foreign languages to students with neuropsychological characteristics (along with the direction of correc-tion)can be defined as follows: -developing the ability to know, -introduce, and use foreign lan-guages as a means of adapting to new communication and language, -consider ocial experience is a means of effectively solving communication and social problems. Since social competence is an element of communicative competence, the authors assume that when learning a foreign language, students with disabilities will acquire and develop the necessary social and communicative skills and abilities, using a foreign language as a means of communication and interaction.

Determinants of information asymmetry in agri-food supply chains

PurposeWith its presence, which can create inefficiencies, uncertainties and risks, information asymmetry poses a significant challenge to successfully managing the agri-food supply chain (AFSC). Understanding the variables that influence information asymmetry is crucial for devising more effective strategies to mitigate it. This study, therefore, explores the variables that influence information asymmetry in the AFSC.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative analysis was conducted, relying on semi-structured interviews with 17 experts representing different actors in the AFSC (e.g. seed producers, retailers, etc.) in Germany. The collected data was analysed using the GABEK® method.FindingsThe study confirms that the influencing variables derived from the existing theory, such as price performance, digitalisation, environmental, process and quality measures, contribute to information asymmetry. It further reveals new variables that associate with information asymmetry, including documentation requirements, increasing regulation, consumer behaviour, incorrect data within the company as well as crises, political conflicts and supplier–buyer conflicts. Furthermore, the study shows that supply chain actors counteract asymmetry by focusing on social behaviour and monitoring suppliers through key performance indicators, employees and social aspects.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to the universal influence of the variables on information asymmetry in the AFSC, making the magnitude of the influence and its context-specific nature unexplained.Originality/valueThis study is one of the very few that examines information asymmetry across the AFSC from the perspective of different actors, providing a more overarching and deeper understanding of information asymmetry.

Expansion of the neocortex and protection from neurodegeneration by invivo transient reprogramming.

Yamanaka factors (YFs) can reverse some aging features in mammalian tissues, but their effects on the brain remain largely unexplored. Here, we induced YFs in the mouse brain in a controlled spatiotemporal manner in two different scenarios: brain development and adult stages in the context of neurodegeneration. Embryonic induction of YFs perturbed cell identity of both progenitors and neurons, but transient and low-level expression is tolerated by these cells. Under these conditions, YF induction led to progenitor expansion, an increased number of upper cortical neurons and glia, and enhanced motor and social behavior in adult mice. Additionally, controlled YF induction is tolerated by principal neurons in the adult dorsal hippocampus and prevented the development of several hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, including cognitive decline and altered molecular signatures, in the 5xFAD mouse model. These results highlight the powerful impact of YFs on neural proliferation and their potential use in brain disorders.

Behavioral strategy in evolution: A review and conceptual framework

Behavioral strategy integrates psychology with strategic management theory and practice, offering realistic insights into human cognition, emotions, and social behavior in strategic management. Yet behavioral strategy's antecedents, mechanisms, consequences, and moderators and their interconnectedness and future directions remain unclear. We explore this field's development and current state based on a systematic literature review of 241 articles. We develop a conceptual framework using a coevolutionary perspective and a socially situated cognition approach, which captures essential behavioral strategy elements and dynamics. We advance the field by emphasizing multilevel coevolving dynamics and the interplay of cognition and emotions in shaping strategic behavior. Furthermore, our framework situates cognition within social contexts. We propose an expanded research agenda for the field that highlights artificial intelligence's potential role in enhancing behavioral strategy and the connection between heuristics and nudge frameworks.